Apogee DA16

I know chances are slim, but maybe someone has a schematic or traced the analog circuit of these units? I have two of them and some of the outputs are dying, first they develop a dc offset but still play music and then they die totally. The symptoms don't sound unfixable, so I'd like to give it a shot. Worst case I'll have to trace the circuit... Mine are DA16, not DA16X - the purple front. Any information which might help is appreciated 

Thanx,

Michael 

I dont like Apogee gear. Way over hyped. And they are totally unhelpfull with schematics. In addition, their multilayer boards are crap and fail.

radardoug said:

I dont like Apogee gear. Way over hyped. And they are totally unhelpfull with schematics. In addition, their multilayer boards are crap and fail.

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Tell us how you really feel. 

Michael Tibes said:

I know chances are slim, but maybe someone has a schematic or traced the analog circuit of these units? I have two of them and some of the outputs are dying, first they develop a dc offset but still play music and then they die totally. The symptoms don't sound unfixable, so I'd like to give it a shot. Worst case I'll have to trace the circuit... Mine are DA16, not DA16X - the purple front. Any information which might help is appreciated 

Thanx,

Michael 

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You could shotgun the electrolytics on the "bad" channels and see where that gets you.  I seem to recall seeing some outift offering repairs on these things but I would have to really think twice about that.  There are many really appealing options available now.

Apogee converters sound great and are really good  but unfortunately the problems you're having are not uncommon on the purple units, like the AD16, DA16 , and AD8000.

Some input channels or output channels just stop working.

I never a seen schematic of these units, I remember I was able to fix an AD16 channel at some point, it was a burned SMD diode I think. At the time visual inspection was enough to see the problem.

Do an inspection with a magnifying glass and good light on the components on the failed channels.
Also do the "shotgun" on the electrolytic caps on those channels would be something I would do.

Anyway, just remember Apogee repairs are not expensive compared to other companies. They will not charge you the replaced parts, you just pay the work rate by hour at reasonably prices.

Ask them a quote

Regards

Thank you, this is the kind of hint I was looking for. I really like the sound of the converters and would be happy to fix them - apart from myself not being a 'just throw it away and buy new' - kinda guy anyway.

Could you explain what the 'shotgun' method is, I never heard of it before?

I believe getting stuff fixed by Apogee might be an option as well, but it seems like a lot of hassle and costs to ship it from Germany and back, so I'll just first give it a shot to fix it myself. But it is good to know that they charge reasonably for repairs.

Michael

The shotgun approach is to just go guns blazing at every component of a type.  Generally referred to in regards to capacitors since they're the most prone to failure of electronic components.  I've fixed many a device by simply replacing all electrolytics.

So hop in there, do a visual inspection, replace anything that's burnt, replace the electrolytics, and see where that gets you.  A couple of hours and a few bucks in parts and you might just be up and running.

Most likely any electrolytics in that unit are going to be SMT unless they're larger filters in the PSU.  I've found I can just tack in standard through-hole parts on the pads if I'm just experimenting.  I'd maybe even leave it that way assuming it's just for me.

Aha, ok. that's what I normally do anyway as well - I'd replace the electrolytics before I seriously search for errors. It'll be a bit more tricky here because of the SMD stuff, but I'll just probably try it on one channel and see if it helps. Otherwise I'll have to trace the schematic and see where it goes bad. At least all channels seem to have similar problems, so it might be easy to fix the others once I finished one.

Thanx again,

Michael

Does it have black circuit boards? If so, you could have faults in the multilayer board. Good luck!

Michael Tibes said:

Could you explain what the 'shotgun' method is, I never heard of it before?

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The "Shotgun" method of repair is to simply start replacing parts without making an attempt to figure out what's really wrong.

Technicians who are pressed to get something fixed and out the door will do that. The problem is that it can take longer than proper debug and if parts are expensive, the repair gets expensive.

At the day job, we had to tell the production people to stop shotgunning the FPGAs on boards whenever something failed in test.

I once had to get a repair quote for a defective DA16x to claim eBay buyer protection.
I got in touch with Apogee in USA and they referred me to PMS Electronics in Germany, who are a certified Apogee workshop.
I´ve contacted PMS and was even able to talk to the Apogee repair technician who was a really nice guy.

Worth a try, or maybe they can help with schematics etc.:
http://www.pms-electronics.de/

Gertius said:

I once had to get a repair quote for a defective DA16x to claim eBay buyer protection.
I got in touch with Apogee in USA and they referred me to PMS Electronics in Germany, who are a certified Apogee workshop.
I´ve contacted PMS and was even able to talk to the Apogee repair technician who was a really nice guy.

Worth a try, or maybe they can help with schematics etc.:
http://www.pms-electronics.de/

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Nice to know that

Yes, thanx, that is really good to know 

Michael

Just saw this..... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYS2bZHOskM

Thank you so much for the video,
great info there